Blazers fall apart in fourth quarter at Pinewood Prep

For more than three quarters, Ridge View’s boys basketball team played SCISA powerhouse Pinewood Prep on even terms Tuesday night in Summerville. But in the end, the host Panthers, ranked No. 17 in the country by ESPN Rise, emerged with an 86-63 win to sweep the season series with the Blazers.

Ridge View was within 49-48 of Pinewood at the start of the fourth quarter, but fell apart when the Panthers went on a 35-15 roll during the final eight minutes.

“The last four minutes were extremely ugly for us,” said RV coach John Combs, whose team dropped to 2-10 in the final outing of its demanding non-region schedule.

Jarvis Davis scored a game-high 22 points for the Blazers, while Jamar Gillespie tallied 14 and Mike Green added 12. But Ridge View continues to be plagued by brief but costly lapses in concentration.

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“We simply are not performing up to our potential as a team and we have to work harder and concentrate harder to make sure we don’t have these mental gaps during the game,” said Combs.

“We are a talented team, but all of the other teams we play are extremely talented as well and to beat some of these very good teams you can’t have much of a drop in your mental focus. We are a fairly young team with limited varsity experience, but at the same time the coaching staff will not accepting mediocre effort or focus. As long as the players keep the fire and desire to want to get better as a team, I believe more wins will come our way as we get into region play.”

The Blazers open Region 4-4A action on Friday at home against Rock Hill.